An automatic adjusting device, which controls car-mounted equipment by utilizing a cellular phone, is disclosed in an Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-312391. The device communicates with the cellular phones, which is owned by a user of an automobile, by means of a wireless communication device installed in the automobile. In addition, the automatic adjusting device controls operations of the car-mounted equipment, such as an air-conditioner, a car stereo, optical axes of head lamps, electrically-driven seats, and electrically-driven mirrors, according to preset conditions for respective users. The publication also discloses an art, in which the device detects the number and the positions of the users by means of a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver of the cellular phone and accordingly adjusts a balance of sound volume or frequency characteristics.
However, the above device controls the on-board equipment only after the users have got into the automobile. The publication does not disclose an art to control the on-board equipment before the users get into the automobile. This is obvious from the fact that the publication discloses a short distance wireless communication device, specifically a Bluetooth terminal, as a on-board communication device and FIG. 1 of the publication shows that the Bluetooth terminal communicates only with the cellular phones in the automobile. According to the specification of Bluetooth, a Bluetooth terminal can communicate with other terminals at a distance within 10 meters at most.
It can be generally said, apart from the publication, that car-mounted devices, such as lamps, a horn and the like are not sufficiently used to assist a user approaching to the parking automobile, though they are potentially capable of doing that. For example, wireless key entry systems are widely used, in which the systems remotely operate lock/unlock of the automobile, and the lighting devices such as hazard lamps are turned on in a predetermined pattern to notify the user of the acceptation of the operation. In addition, such a function is realized, in which a room lamp is turned on when the wireless key is operated, in order to assist the user in getting into the automobile in the night. However, since the systems are operated with direct and one-way transmission of radio waves from the user to the automobile, a reaching area of the radio waves is small (several meters at longest). Therefore, the systems are not useful to assist the user in finding the automobile beyond the reaching area of the radio waves or to assist the user in approaching from a distance to the parking automobile.